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Essay On Nature Vs. Nurture In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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As a stated fact, every person has a distinct personality of their own, yet for centuries, scientists and philosophers have debated for centuries whether this personality stems from the result of nature or nurture. Jean Jacques Rousseau argued that, from the time a person is born, the genes inherited from blood family determines the result of a person’s character, predetermining the personality of one before they enter the world. John Locke, on the other spectrum, debated that when an individual is born, they are given a blank slate and all knowledge and behaviors are gained from observing the exterior world. In Mary Shelley's novel, “Frankenstein,” Shelley takes a clear stance on the nature versus nurture quandary and clearly sides with how …show more content…

Every person the creature interacted with influenced the creature in a negative way. While Victor grew up in a positive environment of love and support, growing to reach his dreams, the creature was raised in a negative environment, causing it to have a negative psychological development since every action the creature carried out was faced with ridicule and hatred. In the end, the creature was pushed towards murder based on the interactions it had with others; the continuously violent and negative receptions the creature faced had a psychological effect, leading it to lash out against others. Nature versus nurture is still a prominent question of today’s society: is a person predestined to become a certain way because of their genetics, or are behaviors gained and learned from the actions and guidance of others? In Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” nurture was the main force that decided the end character of each individual. Nurture was what supported Victor, allowing him to follow his dreams, but also destroyed Frankenstein’s creation, leading it to a life of violence and

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The novel Frankenstein brings to light many problems and situations that shed light on the faults of mankind. Cruelty was a huge factor in the novel; throughout Frankenstein is cruel to his body and to his creation. When he first makes the creature he runs from it, leaving the creature to fend for himself; even when reuniting with the creature he continues displays cruelty. The creature, in turn exhibits Victor cruelty right back. Within Frankenstein cruelty can be attributed, often affecting both Victor and the creature; serving as a crucial motivator and revealing their anger, pain, frustration till eventually both die.

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Frankenstein: Lack of Parenting Parenting is needed in every child’s life. It is one of the most important things that will help a child grow. In the same way though, children need good parenting.

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Oftentimes people are too afraid of what people might think to show their full potential. This is not the case for Victor in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. In Frankenstein we see the journey of Victor and his creation as they separately get rejected and misunderstood by society. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein supports Emerson’s ideas of self-reliance because Victor shows that fearless people can achieve greatness.

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Victor’s parental figures in Frankenstein poison him by surrounding him with countless indulgences. From childhood, Victor was given all of his desires without question and this led to him becoming self-centered and dependent on the service of others. Victor describes his childhood with

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The moment Victor Frankenstein successfully infuses life into his creation he is overcome with horror and disgust. Without further examination he is certain to have created a monster, not a human being (Shelley 35-36). However, despite his grotesque appearance, Frankenstein’s creature was not born malicious. During the first stages of his existence, unbeknownst to Frankenstein himself, his acts are motivated by innocence and virtue, which even earns him the title “good spirit” (79). Frankenstein did not create a monster.

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Numerous research has concluded that several emotional bonds exist between humanity and nature that can impact everything from attitude to anxiety. Novels of the romanticism period, a significant literary era that encompassed most European works written in the early 1800’s, are most known for describing the impacts that nature has on people and implying that unexpected consequences can arise out of this relationship; Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a prime example of such a novel. The prime conflict of this 1818 science-fiction story occurs between the titular character, Victor Frankenstein, and a monster he creates through his own scientific innovations. Because of Victor’s abandonment of the monster, it becomes intent on destroying the scientist’s

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Such passion is seen in Victor’s ‘noble intent’ to design a being that could contribute to society, but he had overextended himself, falling under the spell of playing ‘God,’ further digging his grave as he is blinded by glory. His creation – aptly called monstrous being due to its stature, appearance, and strength – proved to be more of a pure and intellectually disposed ‘child’ that moves throughout the novel as a mere oddity, given the short end of the stick in relation to a lack of familial figures within his life, especially that of parents. Clearly, Victor Frankenstein had sealed his fate: by playing God he was losing his humanity, ultimately becoming the manifestation of Mary Shelley’s hidden desires, deteriorating into The Lucifer Principle by which the author Howard Bloom notes social groups, not individuals, as the primary “unit of selection” in human psychological

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If Victor Frankenstein had spent more time with the “baby”, the monster would not of done the evil and devastating things to mankind. Showing Victor’s love, and make the monster feel safe and secure would have made the Monster less barbaric in his actions. Victor could have prevented the Monster’s turn towards a murderous future and protect him from the people of the world around him. Both Nature and Nurture fit into the Monsters wretched attitude and abominable

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In Mary Shelley’s iconic gothic novel, Frankenstein, Romantic themes are strongly represented in order to propagandize Romanticism over the elements of knowledge and the Enlightenment. In her novel, Shelley uses gothic nature settings to foreshadow dark events that are about to happen in the novel. She also uses nature to intensify the effect that is brought during significant scenes, a strong example being, when Victor Frankenstein’s monster approaches him after a long period of time. Nature and its use to influence mood is one of the most paramount themes of both Frankenstein and Romanticism.

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In 1818 Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, a novel that follows Victor Frankenstein, an ambitious man on his journey to defy the natural sciences. In Volume I of the novel, Victor discusses his childhood, mentioning how wonderful and amazing it was because of how his family sheltered him from the bad in the world. “The innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot it was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled their duties towards me” (35). When Victor brings up his childhood, he suggests that parents play a strong in how their kids turn out, either "to happiness or misery" (35). In particular the main character was sheltered as a child to achieve this “happiness” leading to Victor never developing a coping mechanism to the evil in the world.

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Nature V.S. Nurture in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein Mary Shelly's Frankenstein discusses the nature of human begins, whether it is simply one's natural instinct to act maliciously or if it's one's surroundings and environment that impact their behavior. Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist of this intricate novel, answers this question in two ways, as both the product and the perpetrator of how it is both in the nature of a person, and their nurturing that develops their behaviors, and in the case of this plot, malicious behaviors. Since a young age Frankenstein desired knowledge, constantly seeking for greater wisdom, while his father did not care for this. His passion for learning wasn't something that his parents conditioned him into, and

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Parents are everyone 's first role models. Regardless of biological relation, those who raise us have a profound influence on the way we perceive and interpret life. Parents lay the foundation of our first sense of morality and empathy, and usher us to the path of our development of social skills. No matter how consciously one may attempt to have no resemblance to their parents, it is an inevitability of life that we will harness aspects of their influence and carry them through our lifetime. In Mary Shelley’s, “Frankenstein”, the influence of parental figures is displayed by the morals and values instilled in the monster.

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ENG-3U0 November 20 2015 Frankenstein: The Pursuit of Knowledge Throughout the course of their individual journeys, Victor Frankenstein’s extreme passion for gaining knowledge about creating life, Robert Walton’s curiosity to discover land beyond the North Pole and the monster’s eagerness to obtain knowledge about humans was the principal cause of each of their suffering. As such, In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the pursuit of knowledge is a dangerous path which leads to suffering. Victor Frankenstein develops a keen interest in discovering knowledge about living beings which ultimately results in his personal suffering as well as others suffering. To begin with, Victor embarks on an assignment through combining body parts and following various

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Throughout the novel, the main character Frankenstein, made many poor decisions that I would consider to be morally wrong and unethical. Frankenstein’s research and discoveries are ethically wrong because he was taking dead bodies from cemeteries, cutting off their limbs, and body parts to create a human like creature. He did not have anyone's consent to do this study causing it to be unethical, and he also should not be able to do this because he is playing the role of god. In the beginning of the book, Victor Frankenstein described to Walton that he had created a monster using body parts from a graveyard.

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